High Precision Landing Site Mapping and Rover Localization by Integrated Bundle Adjustment of Mpf Surface Images

High-precision topographic information from all available data is crucial to many landing site geological and engineering applications. At the same time, precise navigation and localization of the rover as it traverses the Martian surface is important both for its safety and for the achievement of its engineering and scientific objectives. In this paper, we investigate a new approach to high-precision Mars landing site mapping and rover localization based on integrated bundle adjustment of an image network built by linking ground-based images with automatically or manually selected tie points. The method and software are tested using lander and rover image data obtained from the Mars Pathfinder mission. An innovative method for automatic tie point selection is also presented.